Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia, is to become the headquarters of the German Agency for Transfer and Innovation (DATI). As the German government's central innovation and funding agency, DATI will support the rapid transfer of technological and social research findings into economic and social applications. It will thus become a driving force and key contact point for research-based transfer and innovation in Germany. In particular, DATI aims to strengthen collaboration between industry players, research institutions and universities of applied science . The Thuringian Ministry of Economics had already submitted its own proposal for the DATI headquarters back in early 2022. Minister of Economics Wolfgang Tiefensee welcomed the decision: “Germany's economy thrives on innovation. Good ideas and research findings should be transformed into new products, processes and services as quickly as possible. That’s why we need to speed up innovation even more in the future. DATI will drive this process for the whole of Germany from within Germany.” Tiefensee also interpreted the establishment of the federal facility as an acknowledgment of Thuringia’s success as an up-and-coming technology and business center. (hw)
